Australian government resorts to "pandemic capitalism" as depression looms
wsws.org | 2020-03-31
The $130 billion "wage subsidy" bonanza for employers is more than the annual federal government budget for health and education combined.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/31/aust…

Apocalyptic and Revolutionary Education in Times of Pandemic
Thomas Stephens | counterpunch.org | 2020-03-31
After the crash of 2009 came the uprisings beginning a so-called "Arab Spring", the city square occupations of the Indignados, and the Occupy movement. What would Wayne Gretzky[1] do today, facing the currently unknown aftermath of the historic Covid-19 pandemic crash? What should popular movements do under the historically unprecedented circumstances we face today? How…
counterpunch.org/2020/03/31/apocalyptic-revolutionary-education-in-times-of-pandemic/

12yo girl dies of Covid-19 in Belgium, as country counts 700+ victims
rt.com | 2020-03-31
A 12-year-old girl has died of the coronavirus in Belgium, becoming the youngest person to succumb to the disease in the country, authorities have announced. The epidemic death toll has surpassed 700 in Belgium. | Losing the child to the disease is "an emotionally difficult moment" not only for the family, but also for medics and researchers," Belgian crisis-center coronavirus spokesman Emmanuel Andre said on Tuesday as he announced the death. | "We are thinking of her family and friends. It is an event that is very rare, but one which upsets us greatly," he added as cited by AP. | Belgium has identified 12,70…
rt.com/news/484564-12yo-girl-dies-covid19-belgium/

Grad Students Continue Withholding Grades During Covid-19 Pandemic
Spread The Strike! | indybay.org | 2020-03-31
Email from graduate student to UCSC Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor on the day Winter quarter grades are due.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/03/30/18831944.php

Visas extended for overseas doctors, nurses and paramedics fighting virus in UK
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-31
Doctors, nurses and paramedics from abroad are to have their visas extended so they can "focus on fighting coronavirus". | The extension will apply to around 2,800 migrant health professionals who are working for the NHS and have UK work visas which are due to expire before 1 October. | They will be renewed automatically for a year free of charge so they can remain working in the country, the Home Office said. | The changes will also apply to their family members. | Restrictions have also been lifted on how many hours international student doctors and nurses can work for the NHS per week, according to an announce…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/03/31/visas-extended-for-overseas-doctors-nurses-and-paramedics-fighting-virus-in-uk/

Teachers across the US discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
wsws.org | 2020-03-31
The WSWS spoke with teachers across the US about the conditions they face amid school closures, and their thoughts on the broader political crisis.
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/03/31/educ…

Stop Coronavirus: Russian Researchers Roll Out Reusable Face Masks
sputniknews.com | 2020-03-31
The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has led to skyrocketing sales of face masks worldwide even though their effectiveness to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is rather limited.
sputniknews.com/russia/202003311078776953-stop-coronavirus-russian-researchers-roll-out-reusable-face-masks/

$99M EU grant for public-private efforts against virus
yenisafak.com | 2020-03-31
The EU is set to allocate a total ‚Ǩ90 million (nearly $99 million) investment in a public-private partnership between the EU and the pharmaceutical industry to help tackle coronavirus, it said on Tuesday.Calling for research proposals under the Innovative Medicines Initiative by the end of March focusing on developing treatments and diagnostics to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, the EU aims to increase preparedness for the future, according to a statement on the European Parliament website.Half of the expected investment will come from the EU budget and the rest from industry, it said.The EU h…
yenisafak.com/en/news/99m-eu-grant-for-public-private-efforts-against-virus-3515558

What not to believe: coronavirus myths you should ignore
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-30
Britons have been facing a flood of myths about the new coronavirus (Covid-19), according to new research. | No, vodka isn't a good hand sanitiser: | The most widely believed false claim is that vodka can be used as hand sanitiser, according to a YouGov survey of 2,099 adults. In reality, there is not enough alcohol in vodka to effectively kill microbes. But 32% of Britons felt it was probably true that the spirit could help them tackle the virus. | The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, recently suggested that his fellow citizens should drink 50ml of vodka a day to ward off the virus. | Othe…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/03/30/what-not-to-believe-coronavirus-myths-you-should-ignore/

What not to believe: coronavirus myths you should ignore
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-30
Britons have been facing a flood of myths about the new coronavirus (Covid-19), according to new research. | No, vodka isn't a good hand sanitiser: | The most widely believed false claim is that vodka can be used as hand sanitiser, according to a YouGov survey of 2,099 adults. In reality, there is not enough alcohol in vodka to effectively kill microbes. But 32% of Britons felt it was probably true that the spirit could help them tackle the virus. | The president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, recently suggested that his fellow citizens should drink 50ml of vodka a day to ward off the virus. | Othe…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/03/30/what-not-to-believe-coronavirus-myths-you-should-ignore/

Live Stream: The Science of Happiness during COVID-19
The Commonwealth Club | indybay.org | 2020-03-30
Online via live stream…
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/03/28/18831892.php

Grad Students Continue Withholding Grades During Covid-19 Pandemic
Spread The Strike! | indybay.org | 2020-03-30
Email from graduate student to UCSC Chancellor and Executive Vice Chancellor on the day Winter quarter grades are due.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/03/30/18831944.php

City at centre of China's virus outbreak gradually revives
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-30
Shopkeepers in the city at the centre of the virus outbreak in China were reopening on Monday but customers were scarce after authorities lifted more of the anti-virus controls that kept tens of millions of people at home for two months."I'm so excited, I want to cry," said a woman in the Chuhe Hanjie pedestrian shopping area.She said she was a teacher in the eastern city of Nanjing visiting her family in Wuhan when the government locked down the city in late January to stem the spread of the coronavirus.Some 70% to 80% of shops on the retail street were open but many imposed limits on how many people could enter…
thecanary.co/global/world-news/2020/03/30/city-at-centre-of-chinas-virus-outbreak-gradually-revives/

The Virus is Our Teacher
Robert Koehler | counterpunch.org | 2020-03-30
Last Sunday at 11 a.m. I went for a walk. Even if it's nothing special, a walk isn't a normal thing to do these days. But this brief walk

International students choose to stay in Turkey
yenisafak.com | 2020-03-30
The vast majority of international students have chosen to stay in Turkey continuing their education online, while only a fraction of them left for their home countries in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Mehmet Ali Bolat, president of Istanbul-based Federation of International Students Association (UDEF), said students were forbidden from leaving their dormitories to stem the spread of the virus.They were given food at the premises, along with toiletries such as soap and hand sanitizers.There are nearly 148,000 international students in Turkey, according to the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Commun…
yenisafak.com/en/news/international-students-choose-to-stay-in-turkey-3515422

N.Korea claims 'successful' rocket launchers test
yenisafak.com | 2020-03-30
North Korea on Monday claimed to have test-fired what it called "super-large multiple rocket launchers," state media reported. | The state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) said the tests were carried out "successfully" by the Academy of Defense Science of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Sunday. | However, the state media acknowledged that there were "problems arising in delivering the weapon system to the units of the People's Army". | Meanwhile, South Korea's military said the rocket launchers tested by Pyongyang were "similar to its large-caliber multiple launch guided rocket system unveiled la…
yenisafak.com/en/world/nkorea-claims-successful-rocket-launchers-test-3515412

In a 10-Day Span, ICE Flew This Iranian Detainee Across the Country Nine Times
ProPublica | iranian.com | 2020-03-30
Less than two weeks ago, the Trump administration urged Americans to avoid nonessential travel to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Major airlines slashed their routes. All the while, Sirous Asgari took nine different flights around the country. None of them was by choice. Asgari bounced around on chartered jets from Louisiana to Texas to …
iranian.com/2020/03/30/in-a-10-day-span-ice-flew-this-iranian-detainee-across-the-country-nine-times/

New figure for projected coronavirus deaths exposes a government in total confusion
Tom Coburg | thecanary.co | 2020-03-29
On 28 March, at a daily coronavirus (Covid-19) press briefing, an NHS chief, speaking alongside a government minister, announced that deaths resulting from the outbreak would be "aimed" at 20,000. But over the last two weeks, government policy has been determined by a very different set of figures. | This latest development illustrates how the government appears to be lurching from one strategy to another. It does not inspire confidence in either the methodologies presented to date or the government's understanding of the science. | Revised figures | : | At a press briefing on 28 March, NHS England medica…
thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/03/29/new-figure-for-projected-coronavirus-deaths-exposes-a-government-in-total-confusion/

Education Cannot Solve Poverty and Inequality
Shawgi Tell | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-03-28
One of the long-standing stubborn myths about education in American culture is that education is "the great equalizer" and that education is the way to overcome poverty and inequality at the individual and societal levels. The facts show, however, that poverty and inequality are generally increasing every year despite the fact that there are more …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/03/education-cannot-solve-poverty-and-inequality/

Coronavirus brings out the worst in criminals as they target families on free school meals
Steve Topple | thecanary.co | 2020-03-28
Not to let a global pandemic go to waste, criminals have been targeting families on free school meals. They're doing it amid the chaos caused by coronavirus (Covid-19). And they're trying to get people's bank details. | Coronavirus: criminals making the most of it: | In an email seen by The Canary, one south London school sent this message to families on free school meals: The DfE [Department for Education] have warned that fraudsters are targeting parents of children eligible for f…
thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/03/28/coronavirus-brings-out-the-worst-in-criminals-as-they-target-families-on-free-school-meals/

[Comment] Offline: COVID-19 and the NHS–"a national scandal"
Richard Horton | thelancet.com | 2020-03-28
"When this is all over, the NHS England board should resign in their entirety." So wrote one National Health Service (NHS) health worker last weekend. The scale of anger and frustration is unprecedented, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is the cause. The UK Government's Contain–Delay–Mitigate–Research strategy failed. It failed, in part, because ministers didn't follow WHO's advice to "test, test, test" every suspected case. They didn't isolate and quarantine. They didn't contact trace. These basic principles of public health and infectious disease control were ignored, for reasons that r…
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30727-3/fulltext?rss=yes

Thanks to the coronavirus, the poorest people in the UK are sitting on a financial time bomb
Steve Topple | thecanary.co | 2020-03-28
The coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic could potentially unleash financial chaos for some of the poorest people in the UK. A new study has found that many of us have no financial safety net in the event of a crisis. But what the research doesn't say is that it's some of those at the bottom of society who'll be hit hardest. And thanks to Universal Credit, that group is about to get a whole lot larger. | Coronavirus: people are not prepared: | The financial advice company OpenMoney surveyed 2,000 people with YouGo…
thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2020/03/28/thanks-to-the-coronavirus-the-poorest-people-in-the-uk-are-sitting-on-a-financial-time-bomb/

Coronavirus testing to begin for some NHS staff
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2020-03-28
Coronavirus (COVID-19) tests for NHS frontline staff are to be trialled this weekend. These are part of a wider roll-out to help those given the all-clear from the disease to return to work. The move comes after prime minister Boris Johnson tested positive for coronavirus and has gone into self-isolation.Cabinet minister Michael Gove said the government was working in a "new alliance" with universities, businesses and researchers to boost testing capacity. A total of 759 people have already died in UK hospitals after being diagnosed with coronavirus. Meanwhile, 113,777 have tested positive and hundreds of thousan…
thecanary.co/discovery/news-discovery/2020/03/28/coronavirus-testing-to-begin-for-some-nhs-staff/

Gilead Sciences asks FDA to rescind 'orphan' status for possible coronavirus treatment drug in rare move
Ashley Curtin | nationofchange.org | 2020-03-28
"We are committed to making the medicine both accessible and affordable to governments and patients around the world."
nationofchange.org/2020/03/28/gilead-sciences-asks-fda-to-rescind-orphan-status-for-possible-coronavirus-treatment-drug-in-a-rare-move/

From layoffs to COVID DANCE-OFFs, richest US universities drag their heels on virus response
rt.com | 2020-03-28
When art school students at one of America's top universities asked their dean for tuition refunds, she turned them down in a most peculiar way: through interpretive dance. The elite, it seems, are different from you and me. | With their school closed due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, students at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts got in touch with college officials to ask for their tuition back. Given that a year's tuition at the art school costs upwards of $60,000, they were anxious to get the money returned. | Dean Allyson Green emailed the students back last week, denying their request. Att…
rt.com/usa/484390-university-dean-dance-coronavirus/

COVID-19 Crisis Reveals Broadband Inequity
Sue Sturgis | commondreams.org | 2020-03-28
Eight-year-old Indi Pineau, a 3rd grader in Jeffco Public Schools, works on doing her first day of online learning in her room at her family's home on March 17, 2020 in Lakewood, Colorado. Jeffco Public Schools implemented a remote learning and work plan where teachers, students, and staff will educate and learn from home with online programs for an unknown period due to COVID-19. (Photo: RJ Sangosti/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
commondreams.org/views/2020/03/28/covid-19-crisis-reveals-broadband-inequity?cd-origin=rss

800,000 Doctors to Trump: Heed Expert Warnings and End Dangerous Campaign Against Social Distancing
Julia Conley, staff writer | commondreams.org | 2020-03-28
"We need your leadership in supporting science-based recommendations on social distancing that can slow the virus." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files… …
commondreams.org/news/2020/03/28/800000-doctors-trump-heed-expert-warnings-and-end-dangerous-campaign-against-social?cd-origin=rss

The Italian war-like measures to fight coronavirus spreading: Re-open closed hospitals now
Alessandro Miani, Ernesto Burgio, Prisco Piscitelli, Renato Lauro, Annamaria Colao | thelancet.com | 2020-03-27
As recently highlighted by The Lancet, the Covid-19 outbreak started in Northern Italy has shocked Europe, while it has been questioned if China benefits from an authoritarian advantage in disease response [1,2]. In Italy, after the shutdown of the educational system (schools and Universities will remain closed at least for one month) and the collapse of the touristic sector (90% of travels and reservations cancelled), the Government officially locked down residents of all the region of Milan (Lombardia) and other 11 provinces.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30064-X/fulltext?rss=yes

"Total System Failure": Congress Pushes $2 Trillion Pandemic Bill. Will Dems Allow "Corporate Coup"?
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-03-27
We continue our look at the massive $2 trillion coronavirus relief package

COVID-19: We must break the power of big pharma
Susan Price | greenleft.org.au | 2020-03-25
Healthcare Mike DavisIssue 1258 United States COVID-19March 25, 2020COVID-19 is finally the monster at the door. Researchers are working night and day to characterise the outbreak, but they are faced with three huge challenges. | First, the continuing shortage or unavailabil…
greenleft.org.au/content/covid-19-we-must-break-power-big-pharma

King David's Ancient Road: How Israeli Archaeologists Are Aiding the Theft of Silwan
Miko Peled | mintpressnews.com | 2020-03-24
Claiming "science" as their reason and in total disregard for the wellbeing of the population, tunnels are dug under Palestinian homes in Silwan, destroying foundations and forcing residents to flee.
mintpressnews.com/how-israel-archeologists-aiding-theft-silwan/266005/

Presenting Trump and Science as Equals Isn't Balanced, It's Dangerous
Neil deMause | fair.org | 2020-03-23
With more than 32,000 COVID-19 infections and 400 deaths in the US to date, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams predicting that "this week, it's going to get bad," as hospitals prepare for the eventuality of rationing treatment for patients least likely…
fair.org/home/presenting-trump-and-science-as-equals-isnt-balanced-its-dangerous/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=presenting-trump-and-science-as-equals-isnt-balanced-its-dangerous

Coronavirus hits US prisons: "thousands face death sentence"
Anya Parampil | thegrayzone.com | 2020-03-22
Red Lines host Anya Parampil speaks with Dr. Amanda Klonsky, the chief program officer at a prison education organization, about…
thegrayzone.com/2020/03/22/coronavirus-prisons-death-sentence/

[Correspondence] Future of Chernobyl research: the urgency for consolidated action
Evgenia Ostroumova, Joachim Schàºz, Ausrele Kesminiene | thelancet.com | 2020-03-18
The Chernobyl nuclear disaster on April 26, 1986, continues to create fears and myths about its health consequences, as shown by the large response to a top-rated HBO miniseries devoted to the tragic event. Risk assessments range from recognising an increase in thyroid cancer incidence in exposed children and adolescents (becoming one of the single most established long-term health effects of the Chernobyl disaster on the general population), to claims of hundreds of thousands of deaths due to the accident.
thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30675-9/fulltext?rss=yes

[Research Paper] A phase 1b randomized study of the safety and immunological responses to vaccination with H4:IC31, H56:IC31, and BCG revaccination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis-uninfected adolescents in Cape Town, South Africa
Linda-Gail Bekker, One Dintwe, Andrew Fiore-Gartland, Keren Middelkoop, Julia Hutter, Anthony Williams, April K. Randhawa, Morten Ruhwald, Ingrid Kromann, Peter L. Andersen, Carlos A. DiazGranados, Kathryn T. Rutkowski, Dereck Tait, Maurine D. Miner, Erica Andersen-Nissen, Stephen C. De Rosa, Kelly E. Seaton, Georgia D. Tomaras, M. Juliana McElrath, Ann Ginsberg, James G. Kublin, HVTN 602 | thelancet.com | 2020-03-18
BCG revaccination administered as a single dose ID and both H4: IC31 and H56: IC31 administered as 2 doses IM had acceptable safety profiles in healthy, QFT-negative, previously BCG-vaccinated adolescents. Characterization of the assays and the immunogenicity of these vaccines may help to identify valuable markers of protection for upcoming immune correlates analyses of C-040-404 and future TB vaccine efficacy trials.
thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30057-2/fulltext?rss=yes